Method and device for video signal processing

ABSTRACT

An image decoding method according to the present invention may comprise determining an intra prediction mode of a current block, deriving reference samples of the current block, and obtaining a prediction sample of the current block using at least one of the reference samples.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus forprocessing video signal.

BACKGROUND ART

Recently, demands for high-resolution and high-quality images such ashigh definition (HD) images and ultra-high definition (UHD) images haveincreased in various application fields. However, higher resolution andquality image data has increasing amounts of data in comparison withconventional image data. Therefore, when transmitting image data byusing a medium such as conventional wired and wireless broadbandnetworks, or when storing image data by using a conventional storagemedium, costs of transmitting and storing increase. In order to solvethese problems occurring with an increase in resolution and quality ofimage data, high-efficiency image encoding/decoding techniques may beutilized.

Image compression technology includes various techniques, including: aninter prediction technique of predicting a pixel value included in acurrent picture from a previous or subsequent picture of the currentpicture; an intra prediction technique of predicting a pixel valueincluded in a current picture by using pixel information in the currentpicture; an entropy encoding technique of assigning a short code to avalue with a high appearance frequency and assigning a long code to avalue with a low appearance frequency; and the like. Image data may beeffectively compressed by using such image compression technology, andmay be transmitted or stored.

In the meantime, with demands for high-resolution images, demands forstereographic image content, which is a new image service, have alsoincreased. A video compression technique for effectively providingstereographic image content with high resolution and ultra-highresolution is being discussed.

DISCLOSURE Technical Problem

An object of the present invention is intended to provide a method andan apparatus for efficiently performing intra prediction for anencoding/decoding target block in encoding/decoding a video signal.

An object of the present invention is intended to provide a method andan apparatus for performing intra prediction using a plurality ofreference samples that is not adjacent to each other inencoding/decoding a video signal.

The technical objects to be achieved by the present invention are notlimited to the above-mentioned technical problems. And, other technicalproblems that are not mentioned will be apparently understood to thoseskilled in the art from the following description.

Technical Solution

A method and an apparatus for decoding a video signal according to thepresent invention, may determine an intra prediction mode of a currentblock, derive reference samples of the current block, and obtain aprediction sample of the current block using at least one of thereference samples. In this case, when intra weighted prediction isapplied to the current block, the prediction sample may be obtainedbased on a plurality of reference samples that does not neighbor eachother.

A method and an apparatus for encoding a video signal according to thepresent invention, may determine an intra prediction mode of a currentblock, derive reference samples of the current block, and obtain aprediction sample of the current block using at least one of thereference samples. In this case, when intra weighted prediction isapplied to the current block, the prediction sample may be obtainedbased on a plurality of reference samples that does not neighbor eachother.

In a method and an apparatus for encoding/decoding a video signalaccording to the present invention, a plurality of reference samplesthat does not neighbor each other may comprise the top reference samplepositioned at the top of the current block and the left reference samplepositioned at the left of the current block.

In a method and an apparatus for encoding/decoding a video signalaccording to the present invention, the prediction sample may beobtained based on a weighted sum between the upper reference sample andthe left reference sample.

In a method and an apparatus for encoding/decoding a video signalaccording to the present invention, the weight applied to the upperreference sample and the left reference sample may be determined basedon the position of the prediction sample or a distance between eachreference sample and the prediction sample.

In a method and an apparatus for encoding/decoding a video signalaccording to the present invention, the weight applied to the upperreference sample and the left reference sample may be determined on thebasis of a sub-block.

In a method and an apparatus for encoding/decoding a video signalaccording to the present invention, one of the upper reference sampleand the left reference sample may be specified by applying the intraprediction mode in the forward direction, and the other may be specifiedby applying the intra prediction mode in the reverse direction.

In a method and an apparatus for encoding/decoding a video signalaccording to the present invention, whether to perform the intraweighted prediction may be determined according to whether the intraprediction mode is a predefined intra prediction mode.

The features briefly summarized above for the present invention are onlyillustrative aspects of the detailed description of the invention thatfollows, but do not limit the scope of the invention.

Advantageous Effects

According to the present invention, an efficient intra prediction may beperformed for an encoding/decoding target block.

According to the present invention, there is an advantage of increasingthe efficiency of intra prediction by performing intra prediction usinga plurality of reference samples that is not adjacent to each other.

The effects obtainable by the present invention are not limited to theabove-mentioned effects, and other effects not mentioned can be clearlyunderstood by those skilled in the art from the description below.

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a device for encoding a videoaccording to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a device for decoding a videoaccording to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of hierarchicallypartitioning a coding block based on a tree structure according to anembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a partition type in which binarytree-based partitioning is allowed according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIGS. 5A and 5B are a diagram illustrating an example in which only abinary tree-based partition of a pre-determined type is allowedaccording to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining an example in which informationrelated to the allowable number of binary tree partitioning isencoded/decoded, according to an embodiment to which the presentinvention is applied.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a partition mode applicable to a codingblock according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating types of pre-defined intra predictionmodes for a device for encoding/decoding a video according to anembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a kind of extended intra predictionmodes according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart briefly illustrating an intra prediction methodaccording to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a method of correcting a predictionsample of a current block based on differential information ofneighboring samples according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 12 and 13 are a diagram illustrating a one-dimensional referencesample group in which reference samples are rearranged in a line.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart illustrating a method of performing intraprediction on the basis of a sub-block.

FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating a partitioning type of a sub-blockaccording to an intra prediction mode.

FIGS. 16 and 17 are a diagram illustrating an example of performingintra prediction on the basis of a sub-block.

FIG. 18 is a diagram illustrating an example in which the same weight isapplied on the basis of a predetermined block.

FIG. 19 is a diagram illustrating an example in which intra weightedprediction is performed in stages.

MODE FOR INVENTION

A variety of modifications may be made to the present invention andthere are various embodiments of the present invention, examples ofwhich will now be provided with reference to drawings and described indetail. However, the present invention is not limited thereto, and theexemplary embodiments can be construed as including all modifications,equivalents, or substitutes in a technical concept and a technical scopeof the present invention. The similar reference numerals refer to thesimilar element in described the drawings.

Terms used in the specification, ‘first’, ‘second’, etc. can be used todescribe various components, but the components are not to be construedas being limited to the terms. The terms are only used to differentiateone component from other components. For example, the ‘first’ componentmay be named the ‘second’ component without departing from the scope ofthe present invention, and the ‘second’ component may also be similarlynamed the ‘first’ component. The term ‘and/or’ includes a combination ofa plurality of items or any one of a plurality of terms.

It will be understood that when an element is simply referred to asbeing ‘connected to’ or ‘coupled to’ another element without being‘directly connected to’ or ‘directly coupled to’ another element in thepresent description, it may be ‘directly connected to’ or ‘directlycoupled to’ another element or be connected to or coupled to anotherelement, having the other element intervening therebetween. In contrast,it should be understood that when an element is referred to as being“directly coupled” or “directly connected” to another element, there areno intervening elements present.

The terms used in the present specification are merely used to describeparticular embodiments, and are not intended to limit the presentinvention. An expression used in the singular encompasses the expressionof the plural, unless it has a clearly different meaning in the context.In the present specification, it is to be understood that terms such as“including”, “having”, etc. are intended to indicate the existence ofthe features, numbers, steps, actions, elements, parts, or combinationsthereof disclosed in the specification, and are not intended to precludethe possibility that one or more other features, numbers, steps,actions, elements, parts, or combinations thereof may exist or may beadded.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will bedescribed in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.Hereinafter, the same constituent elements in the drawings are denotedby the same reference numerals, and a repeated description of the sameelements will be omitted.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a device for encoding a videoaccording to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, the device 100 for encoding a video may include: apicture partitioning module 110, prediction modules 120 and 125, atransform module 130, a quantization module 135, a rearrangement module160, an entropy encoding module 165, an inverse quantization module 140,an inverse transform module 145, a filter module 150, and a memory 155.

The constitutional parts shown in FIG. 1 are independently shown so asto represent characteristic functions different from each other in thedevice for encoding a video, and does not mean that each constitutionalpart is constituted in a constitutional unit of separated hardware orsoftware. In other words, each constitutional part includes each ofenumerated constitutional parts for convenience. Thus, at least twoconstitutional parts of each constitutional part may be combined to formone constitutional part or one constitutional part may be partitionedinto a plurality of constitutional parts to perform each function. Theembodiment where each constitutional part is combined and the embodimentwhere one constitutional part is partitioned are also included in thescope of the present invention, if not departing from the essence of thepresent invention.

Also, some of constituents may not be indispensable constituentsperforming essential functions of the present invention but be selectiveconstituents improving only performance thereof. The present inventionmay be implemented by including only the indispensable constitutionalparts for implementing the essence of the present invention except theconstituents used in improving performance. The structure including onlythe indispensable constituents except the selective constituents used inimproving only performance is also included in the scope of the presentinvention.

The picture partitioning module 110 may partition an input picture intoone or more processing units. Here, the processing unit may be aprediction unit (PU), a transform unit (TU), or a coding unit (CU). Thepicture partitioning module 110 may partition one picture intocombinations of a plurality of coding units, prediction units, andtransform units, and may encode a picture by selecting one combinationof coding units, prediction units, and transform units with apredetermined criterion (e.g., cost function).

For example, one picture may be partitioned into a plurality of codingunits. A recursive tree structure, such as a quad tree structure, may beused to partition a picture into coding units. A coding unit which ispartitioned into other coding units with one picture or a largest codingunit as a root may be partitioned with child nodes corresponding to thenumber of partitioned coding units. A coding unit which is no longerpartitioned by a predetermined limitation serves as a leaf node. Thatis, when it is assumed that only square partitioning is possible for onecoding unit, one coding unit may be partitioned into four other codingunits at most.

Hereinafter, in the embodiment of the present invention, the coding unitmay mean a unit performing encoding, or a unit performing decoding.

A prediction unit may be one of partitions partitioned into a square ora rectangular shape having the same size in a single coding unit, or aprediction unit may be one of partitions partitioned so that oneprediction unit of prediction units partitioned in a single coding unithave a different shape and/or size from other prediction unit.

When a prediction unit performing intra prediction based on a codingunit is generated and the coding unit is not the smallest coding unit,intra prediction may be performed without partitioning the coding unitinto a plurality of prediction units N×N.

The prediction modules 120 and 125 may include an inter predictionmodule 120 performing inter prediction and an intra prediction module125 performing intra prediction. Whether to perform inter prediction orintra prediction for the prediction unit may be determined, and detailedinformation (e.g., an intra prediction mode, a motion vector, areference picture, etc.) according to each prediction method may bedetermined. Here, the processing unit performing prediction may bedifferent from the processing unit for which the prediction method anddetailed content is determined. For example, the prediction method, theprediction mode, etc. may be determined on the basis of the predictionunit, and prediction may be performed on the basis of the transformunit. A residual value (residual block) between the generated predictionblock and an original block may be input to the transform module 130.Also, prediction mode information, motion vector information, etc. usedfor prediction may be encoded with the residual value in the entropyencoding module 165 and may be transmitted to a device for decoding avideo. When a particular encoding mode is used, it is possible totransmit to a device for decoding video by encoding the original blockas it is without generating the prediction block through the predictionmodules 120 and 125.

The inter prediction module 120 may predict the prediction unit based oninformation of at least one of a previous picture or a subsequentpicture of the current picture, or may predict the prediction unit basedon information of some encoded regions in the current picture, in somecases. The inter prediction module 120 may include a reference pictureinterpolation module, a motion prediction module, and a motioncompensation module.

The reference picture interpolation module may receive reference pictureinformation from the memory 155 and may generate pixel information of aninteger pixel or less then the integer pixel from the reference picture.In the case of luma pixels, an 8-tap DCT-based interpolation filterhaving different filter coefficients may be used to generate pixelinformation of an integer pixel or less than an integer pixel on thebasis of a ¼ pixel. In the case of chroma signals, a 4-tap DCT-basedinterpolation filter having different filter coefficient may be used togenerate pixel information of an integer pixel or less than an integerpixel on the basis of a ⅛ pixel.

The motion prediction module may perform motion prediction based on thereference picture interpolated by the reference picture interpolationmodule. As methods for calculating a motion vector, various methods,such as a full search-based block matching algorithm (FBMA), a threestep search (TSS), a new three-step search algorithm (NTS), etc., may beused. The motion vector may have a motion vector value on the basis of a½ pixel or a ¼ pixel based on an interpolated pixel. The motionprediction module may predict a current prediction unit by changing themotion prediction method. As motion prediction methods, various methods,such as a skip method, a merge method, an AMVP (Advanced Motion VectorPrediction) method, an intra block copy method, etc., may be used.

The intra prediction module 125 may generate a prediction unit based onreference pixel information neighboring to a current block which ispixel information in the current picture. When the neighboring block ofthe current prediction unit is a block subjected to inter prediction andthus a reference pixel is a pixel subjected to inter prediction, thereference pixel included in the block subjected to inter prediction maybe replaced with reference pixel information of a neighboring blocksubjected to intra prediction. That is, when a reference pixel is notavailable, at least one reference pixel of available reference pixelsmay be used instead of unavailable reference pixel information.

Prediction modes in intra prediction may include a directionalprediction mode using reference pixel information depending on aprediction direction and a non-directional prediction mode not usingdirectional information in performing prediction. A mode for predictingluma information may be different from a mode for predicting chromainformation, and in order to predict the chroma information, intraprediction mode information used to predict luma information orpredicted luma signal information may be utilized.

In performing intra prediction, when a size of the prediction unit isthe same as a size of the transform unit, intra prediction may beperformed on the prediction unit based on pixels positioned at the left,the top left, and the top of the prediction unit. However, in performingintra prediction, when the size of the prediction unit is different fromthe size of the transform unit, intra prediction may be performed usinga reference pixel based on the transform unit. Also, intra predictionusing N×N partitioning may be used for only the smallest coding unit.

In the intra prediction method, a prediction block may be generatedafter applying an AIS (Adaptive Intra Smoothing) filter to a referencepixel depending on the prediction modes. A type of the AIS filterapplied to the reference pixel may vary. In order to perform the intraprediction method, an intra prediction mode of the current predictionunit may be predicted from the intra prediction mode of the predictionunit neighboring to the current prediction unit. In prediction of theprediction mode of the current prediction unit by using mode informationpredicted from the neighboring prediction unit, when the intraprediction mode of the current prediction unit is the same as the intraprediction mode of the neighboring prediction unit, informationindicating that the prediction modes of the current prediction unit andthe neighboring prediction unit are equal to each other may betransmitted using predetermined flag information. When the predictionmode of the current prediction unit is different from the predictionmode of the neighboring prediction unit, entropy encoding may beperformed to encode prediction mode information of the current block.

Also, a residual block including information on a residual value whichis a different between the prediction unit subjected to prediction andthe original block of the prediction unit may be generated based onprediction units generated by the prediction modules 120 and 125. Thegenerated residual block may be input to the transform module 130.

The transform module 130 may transform the residual block including theinformation on the residual value between the original block and theprediction unit generated by the prediction modules 120 and 125 by usinga transform method, such as discrete cosine transform (DCT), discretesine transform (DST), and KLT. Whether to apply DCT, DST, or KLT inorder to transform the residual block may be determined based on intraprediction mode information of the prediction unit used to generate theresidual block.

The quantization module 135 may quantize values transformed to afrequency domain by the transform module 130. Quantization coefficientsmay vary depending on the block or importance of a picture. The valuescalculated by the quantization module 135 may be provided to the inversequantization module 140 and the rearrangement module 160.

The rearrangement module 160 may rearrange coefficients of quantizedresidual values.

The rearrangement module 160 may change a coefficient in the form of atwo-dimensional block into a coefficient in the form of aone-dimensional vector through a coefficient scanning method. Forexample, the rearrangement module 160 may scan from a DC coefficient toa coefficient in a high frequency domain using a zigzag scanning methodso as to change the coefficients to be in the form of one-dimensionalvectors. Depending on a size of the transform unit and the intraprediction mode, vertical direction scanning where coefficients in theform of two-dimensional blocks are scanned in the column direction orhorizontal direction scanning where coefficients in the form oftwo-dimensional blocks are scanned in the row direction may be usedinstead of zigzag scanning. That is, which scanning method among zigzagscanning, vertical direction scanning, and horizontal direction scanningis used may be determined depending on the size of the transform unitand the intra prediction mode.

The entropy encoding module 165 may perform entropy encoding based onthe values calculated by the rearrangement module 160. Entropy encodingmay use various encoding methods, for example, exponential Golombcoding, context-adaptive variable length coding (CAVLC), andcontext-adaptive binary arithmetic coding (CABAC).

The entropy encoding module 165 may encode a variety of information,such as residual value coefficient information and block typeinformation of the coding unit, prediction mode information, partitionunit information, prediction unit information, transform unitinformation, motion vector information, reference frame information,block interpolation information, filtering information, etc. from therearrangement module 160 and the prediction modules 120 and 125.

The entropy encoding module 165 may entropy encode the coefficients ofthe coding unit input from the rearrangement module 160.

The inverse quantization module 140 may inversely quantize the valuesquantized by the quantization module 135 and the inverse transformmodule 145 may inversely transform the values transformed by thetransform module 130. The residual value generated by the inversequantization module 140 and the inverse transform module 145 may becombined with the prediction unit predicted by a motion estimationmodule, a motion compensation module, and the intra prediction module ofthe prediction modules 120 and 125 such that a reconstructed block canbe generated.

The filter module 150 may include at least one of a deblocking filter,an offset correction unit, or an adaptive loop filter (ALF).

The deblocking filter may remove block distortion that occurs due toboundaries between the blocks in the reconstructed picture. In order todetermine whether to perform deblocking, the pixels included in severalrows or columns in the block may be a basis of determining whether toapply the deblocking filter to the current block. When the deblockingfilter is applied to the block, a strong filter or a weak filter may beapplied depending on required deblocking filtering strength. Also, inapplying the deblocking filter, horizontal direction filtering andvertical direction filtering may be processed in parallel.

The offset correction module may correct offset with the originalpicture on the basis of a pixel in the picture subjected to deblocking.In order to perform the offset correction on a particular picture, it ispossible to use a method of applying offset in consideration of edgeinformation of each pixel or a method of partitioning pixels of apicture into the predetermined number of regions, determining a regionto be subjected to perform offset, and applying the offset to thedetermined region.

Adaptive loop filtering (ALF) may be performed based on the valueobtained by comparing the filtered reconstructed picture and theoriginal picture. The pixels included in the picture may be partitionedinto predetermined groups, a filter to be applied to each of the groupsmay be determined, and filtering may be individually performed for eachgroup. Information on whether to apply ALF and a luma signal may betransmitted by coding units (CU). The shape and filter coefficient of afilter for ALF may vary depending on each block. Also, the filter forALF in the same shape (fixed shape) may be applied regardless ofcharacteristics of the application target block.

The memory 155 may store the reconstructed block or picture calculatedthrough the filter module 150. The stored reconstructed block or picturemay be provided to the prediction modules 120 and 125 in performinginter prediction.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a device for decoding a videoaccording to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 2, the device 200 for decoding a video may include: anentropy decoding module 210, a rearrangement module 215, an inversequantization module 220, an inverse transform module 225, predictionmodules 230 and 235, a filter module 240, and a memory 245.

When a video bitstream is input from the device for encoding a video,the input bitstream may be decoded according to an inverse process ofthe device for encoding a video.

The entropy decoding module 210 may perform entropy decoding accordingto an inverse process of entropy encoding by the entropy encoding moduleof the device for encoding a video. For example, corresponding to themethods performed by the device for encoding a video, various methods,such as exponential Golomb coding, context-adaptive variable lengthcoding (CAVLC), and context-adaptive binary arithmetic coding (CABAC)may be applied.

The entropy decoding module 210 may decode information on intraprediction and inter prediction performed by the device for encoding avideo.

The rearrangement module 215 may perform rearrangement on the bitstreamentropy decoded by the entropy decoding module 210 based on therearrangement method used in the device for encoding a video. Therearrangement module may reconstruct and rearrange the coefficients inthe form of one-dimensional vectors to the coefficient in the form oftwo-dimensional blocks. The rearrangement module 215 may receiveinformation related to coefficient scanning performed in the device forencoding a video and may perform rearrangement via a method of inverselyscanning the coefficients based on the scanning order performed in thedevice for encoding a video.

The inverse quantization module 220 may perform inverse quantizationbased on a quantization parameter received from the device for encodinga video and the rearranged coefficients of the block.

The inverse transform module 225 may perform the inverse transform,i.e., inverse DCT, inverse DST, and inverse KLT, which is the inverseprocess of transform, i.e., DCT, DST, and KLT, performed by thetransform module on the quantization result by the device for encoding avideo. Inverse transform may be performed based on a transfer unitdetermined by the device for encoding a video. The inverse transformmodule 225 of the device for decoding a video may selectively performtransform schemes (e.g., DCT, DST, and KLT) depending on a plurality ofpieces of information, such as the prediction method, a size of thecurrent block, the prediction direction, etc.

The prediction modules 230 and 235 may generate a prediction block basedon information on prediction block generation received from the entropydecoding module 210 and previously decoded block or picture informationreceived from the memory 245.

As described above, like the operation of the device for encoding avideo, in performing intra prediction, when a size of the predictionunit is the same as a size of the transform unit, intra prediction maybe performed on the prediction unit based on the pixels positioned atthe left, the top left, and the top of the prediction unit. Inperforming intra prediction, when the size of the prediction unit isdifferent from the size of the transform unit, intra prediction may beperformed using a reference pixel based on the transform unit. Also,intra prediction using N×N partitioning may be used for only thesmallest coding unit.

The prediction modules 230 and 235 may include a prediction unitdetermination module, an inter prediction module, and an intraprediction module. The prediction unit determination module may receivea variety of information, such as prediction unit information,prediction mode information of an intra prediction method, informationon motion prediction of an inter prediction method, etc. from theentropy decoding module 210, may partition a current coding unit intoprediction units, and may determine whether inter prediction or intraprediction is performed on the prediction unit. By using informationrequired in inter prediction of the current prediction unit receivedfrom the device for encoding a video, the inter prediction module 230may perform inter prediction on the current prediction unit based oninformation of at least one of a previous picture or a subsequentpicture of the current picture including the current prediction unit.Alternatively, inter prediction may be performed based on information ofsome pre-reconstructed regions in the current picture including thecurrent prediction unit.

In order to perform inter prediction, it may be determined for thecoding unit which of a skip mode, a merge mode, an AMVP mode, and aninter block copy mode is used as the motion prediction method of theprediction unit included in the coding unit.

The intra prediction module 235 may generate a prediction block based onpixel information in the current picture. When the prediction unit is aprediction unit subjected to intra prediction, intra prediction may beperformed based on intra prediction mode information of the predictionunit received from the device for encoding a video. The intra predictionmodule 235 may include an adaptive intra smoothing (AIS) filter, areference pixel interpolation module, and a DC filter. The AIS filterperforms filtering on the reference pixel of the current block, andwhether to apply the filter may be determined depending on theprediction mode of the current prediction unit. AIS filtering may beperformed on the reference pixel of the current block by using theprediction mode of the prediction unit and AIS filter informationreceived from the device for encoding a video. When the prediction modeof the current block is a mode where AIS filtering is not performed, theAIS filter may not be applied.

When the prediction mode of the prediction unit is a prediction mode inwhich intra prediction is performed based on the pixel value obtained byinterpolating the reference pixel, the reference pixel interpolationmodule may interpolate the reference pixel to generate the referencepixel of an integer pixel or less than an integer pixel. When theprediction mode of the current prediction unit is a prediction mode inwhich a prediction block is generated without interpolation thereference pixel, the reference pixel may not be interpolated. The DCfilter may generate a prediction block through filtering when theprediction mode of the current block is a DC mode.

The reconstructed block or picture may be provided to the filter module240. The filter module 240 may include the deblocking filter, the offsetcorrection module, and the ALF.

Information on whether or not the deblocking filter is applied to thecorresponding block or picture and information on which of a strongfilter and a weak filter is applied when the deblocking filter isapplied may be received from the device for encoding a video. Thedeblocking filter of the device for decoding a video may receiveinformation on the deblocking filter from the device for encoding avideo, and may perform deblocking filtering on the corresponding block.

The offset correction module may perform offset correction on thereconstructed picture based on a type of offset correction and offsetvalue information applied to a picture in performing encoding.

The ALF may be applied to the coding unit based on information onwhether to apply the ALF, ALF coefficient information, etc. receivedfrom the device for encoding a video. The ALF information may beprovided as being included in a particular parameter set.

The memory 245 may store the reconstructed picture or block for use as areference picture or block, and may provide the reconstructed picture toan output module.

As described above, in the embodiment of the present invention, forconvenience of explanation, the coding unit is used as a termrepresenting a unit for encoding, but the coding unit may serve as aunit performing decoding as well as encoding.

In addition, a current block may represent a target block to beencoded/decoded. And, the current block may represent a coding treeblock (or a coding tree unit), a coding block (or a coding unit), atransform block (or a transform unit), a prediction block (or aprediction unit), or the like depending on an encoding/decoding step.

A picture may be encoded/decoded by partitioned into base blocks havinga square shape or a non-square shape. At this time, the base block maybe referred to as a coding tree unit. The coding tree unit may bedefined as a coding unit of the largest size allowed within a sequenceor a slice. Information regarding whether the coding tree unit has asquare shape or has a non-square shape or information regarding a sizeof the coding tree unit may be signaled through a sequence parameterset, a picture parameter set, or a slice header. The coding tree unitmay be partitioned into smaller size partitions. At this time, if it isassumed that a depth of a partition generated by dividing the codingtree unit is 1, a depth of a partition generated by dividing thepartition having depth 1 may be defined as 2. That is, a partitiongenerated by dividing a partition having a depth k in the coding treeunit may be defined as having a depth k+1.

A partition of arbitrary size generated by dividing a coding tree unitmay be defined as a coding unit. The coding unit may be recursivelypartitioned or partitioned into base units for performing prediction,quantization, transform, or in-loop filtering, or the like. For example,a partition of arbitrary size generated by dividing the coding unit maybe defined as a coding unit, or may be defined as a transform unit or aprediction unit, which is a base unit for performing prediction,quantization, transform, in-loop filtering, or the like.

Partitioning of a coding tree unit or a coding unit may be performedbased on at least one of the vertical line or the horizontal line. Inaddition, the number of vertical lines or horizontal lines partitioningthe coding tree unit or the coding unit may be at least one or more. Forexample, the coding tree unit or the coding unit may be partitioned intotwo partitions using one vertical line or one horizontal line, or thecoding tree unit or the coding unit may be partitioned into threepartitions using two vertical lines or two horizontal lines.Alternatively, the coding tree unit or the coding unit may bepartitioned into four partitions having a length and the width of ½ byusing one vertical line and one horizontal line.

When a coding tree unit or a coding unit is partitioned into a pluralityof partitions using at least one vertical line or at least onehorizontal line, the partitions may have a uniform size or a differentsize. Alternatively, any one partition may have a different size fromthe remaining partitions.

In the embodiments described below, it is assumed that a coding treeunit or a coding unit is partitioned into a quad tree structure, atriple tree structure, or a binary tree structure. However, it is alsopossible to partition a coding tree unit or a coding unit using a largernumber of vertical lines or a larger number of horizontal lines.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of hierarchicallypartitioning a coding block based on a tree structure according to anembodiment of the present invention.

An input video signal is decoded in predetermined block units. Such adefault unit for decoding the input video signal is a coding block. Thecoding block may be a unit performing intra/inter prediction, transform,and quantization. In addition, a prediction mode (e.g., intra predictionmode or inter prediction mode) is determined on the basis of a codingblock, and the prediction blocks included in the coding block may sharethe determined prediction mode. The coding block may be a square ornon-square block having an arbitrary size in a range of 8×8 to 64×64, ormay be a square or non-square block having a size of 128×128, 256×256,or more.

Specifically, the coding block may be hierarchically partitioned basedon at least one of a quad tree, a triple tree, or a binary tree. Here,quad tree-based partitioning may mean that a 2N×2N coding block ispartitioned into four N×N coding blocks, triple tree-based partitioningmay mean that one coding block is partitioned into three coding blocks,and binary-based partitioning may mean that one coding block ispartitioned into two coding blocks. Even if the triple-basedpartitioning or the binary tree-based partitioning is performed, asquare-shaped coding block may exist in the lower depth. Also, after thetriple-based partitioning or the binary-based partitioning is performed,generating a square-shaped coding block may be limited in a lower depth.

Binary tree-based partitioning may be symmetrically or asymmetricallyperformed. The coding block partitioned based on the binary tree may bea square block or a non-square block, such as a rectangular shape. Forexample, a partition type in which the binary tree-based partitioning isallowed may comprise at least one of a symmetric type of 2N×N(horizontal directional non-square coding unit) or N×2N (verticaldirection non-square coding unit), asymmetric type of nL×2N, nR×2N,2N×nU, or 2N×nD.

Binary tree-based partitioning may be limitedly allowed to one of asymmetric or an asymmetric type partition. In this case, constructingthe coding tree unit with square blocks may correspond to quad tree CUpartitioning, and constructing the coding tree unit with symmetricnon-square blocks may correspond to binary tree partitioning.Constructing the coding tree unit with square blocks and symmetricnon-square blocks may correspond to quad and binary tree CUpartitioning.

Binary tree-based partitioning may be performed on a coding block wherequad tree-based partitioning is no longer performed. At least one ofquad tree-based partitioning, triple tree-based partitioning, or binarytree-based partitioning may no longer be performed on the coding blockpartitioned based on the binary tree.

Alternatively, the triple tree-based partitioning or the binarytree-based partitioning may be allowed for the coding block partitionedbased on the binary tree, but only one of the horizontal or verticalpartitioning may be limitedly allowed.

For example, an additional partition or an additional partitiondirection may be limited for a coding block partitioned based on thebinary tree according to a location, an index, a shape, or an additionalpartition type of a neighboring partition of the coding blockpartitioned based on the binary tree, or the like. For example, when anindex of the coding block that precedes the coding order among the twocoding blocks generated by the binary tree based-partitioning is 0(hereinafter referred to as coding block index 0) and an index of thecoding block that follows the coding order among the two coding blocksgenerated by the binary tree-based partitioning is 1 (hereinafterreferred to as coding block index 1), in the case where the binarytree-based partitioning is applied to all coding blocks having a codingblock index of 0 or a coding block index of 1, the binary tree-basedpartitioning direction of the coding block having the coding block indexof 1 may be determined according to a binary tree-based partitioningdirection of the coding block having the coding block index of 0.Specifically, when the binary tree-based partitioning direction of thecoding block having the coding block index of 0 is to partition thecoding block having the coding block index of 0 into square partitions,binary tree-based partitioning of the coding block having the codingblock index of 1 may be limited to have a different direction frombinary tree-based partitioning of the coding block having a coding blockindex of 1. Thus, the coding blocks having the coding block index of 0and the coding block index of 1 may be restricted from being partitionedinto square partitions. In this case, encoding/decoding of informationindicating the binary tree partitioning direction of the coding blockhaving the coding block index of 1 may be omitted. This is becausepartitioning all of the coding blocks having the coding block index of 0and the coding block index of 1 into square partitions has the sameeffect as partitioning the upper depth block on the basis of a quadtree, so that allowing partitioning of all into square partitions isundesirable in terms of coding efficiency.

Triple tree-based partitioning means partitioning a coding block intothree partitions in the horizontal or vertical direction. All threepartitions generated due to triple tree-based partitioning may havedifferent sizes. Alternatively, two of the partitions generated due totriple tree-based partitioning may have the same size, and the other onemay have a different size. For example, the width ratio or height ratioof partitions generated as the coding block is partitioned may be set to1:n:1, 1:1:n, n:1:1 or m:n:1 depending on the partitioning direction.Here, m and n may be 1 or a real number greater than 1, for example, aninteger such as 2.

Triple tree-based partitioning may be performed on a coding block inwhich quad tree-based partitioning is no longer performed. For thecoding block partitioned based on the triple tree, at least one of quadtree-based partitioning, triple tree-based partitioning, or binarytree-based partitioning may be set to no longer be performed.

Alternatively, triple tree-based partitioning or binary tree-basedpartitioning may be allowed for the coding block partitioned based onthe triple tree, but only one of horizontal or vertical partitioning maybe limitedly allowed.

For example, an additional partition or an additional partitiondirection may be limited for a coding block partitioned based on thetriple tree according to a location, an index, a shape, or an additionalpartition type of a neighboring partition of the coding blockpartitioned based on the triple tree, or the like. For example, one ofhorizontal division or vertical division may be limited to a partitionhaving the largest size among coding blocks generated due to tripletree-based partitioning. Specifically, the largest partition amongcoding blocks generated due to triple tree-based partitioning may notallow binary tree partitioning in the same direction or triple treepartitioning direction in the same direction as the triple treepartitioning direction of the upper depth partition. In this case,encoding/decoding of information indicating the binary tree partitioningdirection or the triple tree partitioning direction may be omitted forthe largest partition among the coding blocks partitioned based on thetriple tree.

The partitioning in the lower depth may be determined depending on thepartitioning type of the upper depth. For example, when binarytree-based partitioning is allowed in two or more depths, only a binarytree-based partitioning of the same type as a binary tree partitioningof an upper depth may be allowed in a lower depth. For example, when thebinary tree-based partitioning is performed in the 2N×N type in theupper depth, the binary tree-based partitioning in the 2N×N type may beperformed in the lower depth. Alternatively, when binary tree-basedpartitioning is performed in an N×2N type in an upper depth, N×2N-typebinary tree-based partitioning may be allowed in a lower depth.

Conversely, it is also possible to allow only binary tree-basedpartitioning having a different type from the binary tree partitioningof the upper depth in the lower depth.

For a sequence, a slice, a coding tree unit, or a coding unit, it may belimited to use only a special type of binary tree-based partitioning ora special type of triple tree-based partitioning. For example, it may belimited to allow only 2N×N or N×2N type binary tree-based partitioningfor a coding tree unit. The allowed partitioning type may be predefinedin the encoder or the decoder, and information about the allowedpartitioning type or the not allowed partitioning type may be encodedand signaled through a bitstream.

FIGS. 5A and 5B are a diagram illustrating an example in which only aspecific type of binary tree-based partitioning is allowed. FIG. 5Ashows an example in which only N×2N type of binary tree-basedpartitioning is allowed, and FIG. 5B shows an example in which only 2N×Ntype of binary tree-based partitioning is allowed. In order to implementadaptive partitioning based on the quad tree or binary tree, informationindicating quad tree-based partitioning, information on a size/depth ofthe coding block that quad tree-based partitioning is allowed,information indicating binary tree-based partitioning, information onthe size/depth of the coding block that binary tree-based partitioningis allowed, information on the size/depth of the coding block thatbinary tree-based partitioning is not allowed, information on whetherbinary tree-based partitioning is performed in the vertical direction orthe horizontal direction, etc. may be used.

In addition, information on the number of times a binary/triple treepartitioning is allowed, a depth in which the binary/triple treepartitioning is allowed, or the number of the depths in which thebinary/triple tree partitioning is allowed may be obtained for a codingtree unit or a specific coding unit. The information may be encoded onthe basis of a coding tree unit or a coding unit, and may be transmittedto a decoder through a bitstream.

For example, a syntax ‘max_binary_depth_idx_minus1’ indicating a maximumdepth in which binary tree partitioning is allowed may beencoded/decoded through a bitstream. In this case,max_binary_depth_idx_minus1+1 may indicate the maximum depth in whichthe binary tree partitioning is allowed.

Referring to the example shown in FIG. 6, in FIG. 6, the binary treepartitioning has been performed for a coding unit having a depth of 2and a coding unit having a depth of 3. Accordingly, at least one ofinformation indicating the number of times the binary tree partitioningin the coding tree unit has been performed (i.e., 2 times), informationindicating the maximum depth in which the binary tree partitioning hasbeen allowed in the coding tree unit (i.e., depth 3), or the number ofdepths in which the binary tree partitioning has been performed in thecoding tree unit (i.e., 2 (depth 2 and depth 3)) may be encoded/decodedthrough a bitstream.

As another example, at least one of information on the number of timesthe binary/triple tree partitioning is allowed, the depth in which thebinary/triple tree partitioning is allowed, or the number of the depthsin which the binary/triple tree partitioning is allowed may be obtainedfor each sequence or each slice. For example, the information may beencoded on the basis of a sequence, a picture, or a slice unit andtransmitted through a bitstream. In contrast, a depth in which thebinary/triple tree partitioning is allowed, or the number of the depthsin which the binary/triple tree partitioning is allowed may be definedfor each a sequence, a picture, or a slice unit. Accordingly, at leastone of the number of the binary/triple tree partitioning in the firstslice and the second slice, the maximum depth in which the binary/tripletree partitioning is allowed in the first slice and the second slice, orthe number of depths in which the binary/triple tree partitioning isperformed in the first slice and the second slice may be difference froma second slice. For example, in the first slice, binary treepartitioning may be allowed for only one depth, while in the secondslice, binary tree partitioning may be allowed for two depths.

As another example, the number of times the binary/triple treepartitioning is allowed, the depth in which the binary/triple treepartitioning is allowed, or the number of depths in which thebinary/triple tree partitioning is allowed may be set differentlyaccording to a time level identifier (TemporalID) of a slice or apicture. Here, the temporal level identifier (TemporalID) is used toidentify each of a plurality of layers of video having a scalability ofat least one of view, spatial, temporal or quality.

As shown in FIG. 3, the first coding block 300 with the partition depth(split depth) of k may be partitioned into a plurality of second codingblocks based on the quad tree. For example, the second coding blocks 310to 340 may be square blocks having the half width and the half height ofthe first coding block, and the partition depth of the second codingblock may be increased to k+1.

The second coding block 310 with the partition depth of k+1 may bepartitioned into a plurality of third coding blocks with the partitiondepth of k+2. Partitioning of the second coding block 310 may beperformed by selectively using one of the quad tree and the binary treedepending on a partitioning method. Here, the partitioning method may bedetermined based on at least one of the information indicating quadtree-based partitioning or the information indicating binary tree-basedpartitioning.

When the second coding block 310 is partitioned based on the quad tree,the second coding block 310 may be partitioned into four third codingblocks 310 a having the half width and the half height of the secondcoding block, and the partition depth of the third coding block 310 amay be increased to k+2. In contrast, when the second coding block 310is partitioned based on the binary tree, the second coding block 310 maybe partitioned into two third coding blocks. Here, each of two thirdcoding blocks may be a non-square block having one of the half width andthe half height of the second coding block, and the partition depth maybe increased to k+2. The second coding block may be determined as anon-square block of the horizontal direction or the vertical directiondepending on a partitioning direction, and the partitioning directionmay be determined based on the information on whether binary tree-basedpartitioning is performed in the vertical direction or the horizontaldirection.

In the meantime, the second coding block 310 may be determined as a leafcoding block that is no longer partitioned based on the quad tree or thebinary tree. In this case, the leaf coding block may be used as aprediction block or a transform block.

Like partitioning of the second coding block 310, the third coding block310 a may be determined as a leaf coding block, or may be furtherpartitioned based on the quad tree or the binary tree.

In the meantime, the third coding block 310 b partitioned based on thebinary tree may be further partitioned into coding blocks 310 b-2 of thevertical direction or coding blocks 310 b-3 of the horizontal directionbased on the binary tree, and the partition depth of the relevant codingblocks may be increased to k+3. Alternatively, the third coding block310 b may be determined as a leaf coding block 310 b-1 that is no longerpartitioned based on the binary tree. In this case, the coding block 310b-1 may be used as a prediction block or a transform block. However, theabove partitioning process may be limitedly performed based on at leastone of the information on a size/depth of the coding block that quadtree-based partitioning is allowed, the information on the size/depth ofthe coding block that binary tree-based partitioning is allowed, or theinformation on the size/depth of the coding block that binary tree-basedpartitioning is not allowed.

A number of a candidate that represent a size of a coding block may belimited to a predetermined number, or the size of the coding block in apredetermined unit may have a fixed value. As an example, the size ofthe coding block in a sequence or in a picture may be limited to have256×256, 128×128, or 32×32. Information indicating the size of thecoding block in the sequence or in the picture may be signaled through asequence header or a picture header.

As a result of partitioning based on a quad tree and a binary tree, acoding unit may be represented as square or rectangular shape of anarbitrary size.

Depending on whether the coding block is generated based on the quadtree partitioning, the binary tree partitioning, or the triple treepartitioning, it is possible to limit the application of the transformskip.

Here, when the inverse transform is skipped in both the horizontaldirection and the vertical direction of the coding block, the inversetransform is not performed in the horizontal direction and the verticaldirection of the coding block. In this case, an inverse quantizedresidual coefficient may be scaled to a preset value to obtain aresidual sample of the coding block.

Omitting the inverse transform in the horizontal direction meansperforming the inverse transform using DCT, DST, or the like in thevertical direction, without performing the inverse transform in thehorizontal direction. In this case, scaling may be performed in thehorizontal direction.

Omitting the inverse transform in the vertical direction meansperforming the inverse transform using DCT, DST, or the like in thehorizontal direction, without performing the inverse transform in thevertical direction. In this case, scaling may be performed in thevertical direction.

Specifically, according to a partitioning type of a coding block, it maybe determined whether an inverse transform skip technique may be usedfor the coding block. For example, when the coding block is generatedthrough binary tree-based partitioning, it may be limited to not use aninverse transform skip technique for the coding block. Accordingly, whenthe coding block is generated through binary tree-based partitioning,the residual sample of the coding block may be obtained by inverselytransforming the coding block. In addition, when the coding block isgenerated through binary tree-based partitioning, encoding/decoding ofinformation (eg, transform_skip_flag) indicating whether an inversetransform is skipped may be omitted.

Alternatively, when the coding block is generated through binarytree-based partitioning, it may be limited to only allow an inversetransform skip technique in at least one of the horizontal direction orthe vertical direction. Here, the direction in which the inversetransform skip technique is limited may be determined based oninformation decoded from the bitstream or adaptively determined based onat least one of a size of the coding block, a shape of the coding block,or an intra prediction mode of the coding block.

For example, when a coding block is a non-square block whose width isgreater than the height, an inverse transform skip technique may beallowed only for the vertical direction, and the use of the inversetransform skip technique may be limited for the horizontal direction.That is, when the coding block is 2N×N, inverse transform may beperformed in the horizontal direction of the coding block, and inversetransform may be selectively performed in the vertical direction.

On the other hand, when a coding block is a non-square block whoseheight is greater than the width, an inverse transform skip techniquemay be allowed only for the horizontal direction, and the use of theinverse transform skip technique may be limited for the verticaldirection. That is, when the coding block is N×2N, inverse transform maybe performed in the vertical direction of the coding block, and inversetransform may be selectively performed in the horizontal direction.

In contrast to the above example, when a coding block is a non-squareblock whose width greater than the height, an inverse transform skiptechnique is allowed only for the horizontal direction, when a codingblock is a non-square block whose height is greater than the width, theinverse transform skip technique may be allowed only for the verticaldirection.

Information on whether to skip inverse transform in the horizontaldirection or information indicating whether to skip the inversetransform in the vertical direction may be signaled through thebitstream. For example, the information indicating whether to skip theinverse transform in the horizontal direction may be a 1-bit flag,‘hor_transform_skip_flag’, and the information indicating whether toskip the inverse transform in the vertical direction may be a 1-bitflag, ‘ver_transform_skip_flag’. The encoder may encode at least one of‘hor_transform_skip_flag’ or ‘ver_transform_skip_flag’ according to ashape of the coding block. In addition, the decoder may determinewhether inverse transform in the horizontal direction or the verticaldirection is skipped using at least one of ‘hor_transform_skip_flag’ or‘ver_transform_skip_flag’.

Depending on a partitioning type of a coding block, in either direction,the inverse transform may be set to be omitted. For example, when thecoding block is generated through binary tree-based partitioning,inverse transform in the horizontal direction or the vertical directionmay be omitted. That is, if the coding block is generated bypartitioning based on a binary tree, without encoding/decoding ofinformation indicating whether the inverse transform of the coding blockis skipped (for example, transform_skip_flag, hor_transform_skip_flag,ver_transform_skip_flag), it may be determined whether to skip theinverse transform in at least one of the horizontal or verticaldirection with respect to the coding block.

A coding block is encoded using at least one of a skip mode, intraprediction, inter prediction, or a skip method. Once a coding block isdetermined, a prediction block may be determined through predictivepartitioning of the coding block. The predictive partitioning of thecoding block may be performed by a partition mode (Part mode) indicatinga partition type of the coding block. A size or a shape of theprediction block may be determined according to the partition mode ofthe coding block. For example, a size of a prediction block determinedaccording to the partition mode may be equal to or smaller than a sizeof a coding block.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a partition mode that may be applied toa coding block when the coding block is encoded by inter prediction.

When a coding block is encoded by inter prediction, one of 8partitioning modes may be applied to the coding block, as in the exampleshown in FIG. 4.

When a coding block is encoded by intra prediction, a partition modePART_2N×2N or a partition mode PART_N×N may be applied to the codingblock.

PART_N×N may be applied when a coding block has a minimum size. Here,the minimum size of the coding block may be pre-defined in an encoderand a decoder. Or, information regarding the minimum size of the codingblock may be signaled via a bitstream. For example, the minimum size ofthe coding block may be signaled through a slice header, so that theminimum size of the coding block may be defined per slice.

In general, a prediction block may have a size from 64×64 to 4×4.However, when a coding block is encoded by inter prediction, it may berestricted that the prediction block does not have a 4×4 size in orderto reduce memory bandwidth when performing motion compensation.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating types of pre-defined intra predictionmodes for a device for encoding/decoding a video according to anembodiment of the present invention.

The device for encoding/decoding a video may perform intra predictionusing one of pre-defined intra prediction modes. The pre-defined intraprediction modes for intra prediction may include non-directionalprediction modes (e.g., a planar mode, a DC mode) and 33 directionalprediction modes.

Alternatively, in order to enhance accuracy of intra prediction, alarger number of directional prediction modes than the 33 directionalprediction modes may be used. That is, M extended directional predictionmodes may be defined by subdividing angles of the directional predictionmodes (M>33), and a directional prediction mode having a predeterminedangle may be derived using at least one of the 33 pre-defineddirectional prediction modes.

Specifically, a larger number of intra prediction modes than 35 intraprediction modes shown in FIG. 8 may be used. At this time, the use of alarger number of intra prediction modes than the 35 intra predictionmodes may be referred to as an extended intra prediction mode.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example of extended intra prediction modes, andthe extended intra prediction modes may include 2 non-directionalprediction modes and 65 extended directional prediction modes. The samenumbers of the extended intra prediction modes may be used for a lumacomponent and a chroma component, or a different number of intraprediction modes may be used for each component. For example, 67extended intra prediction modes may be used for the luma component, and35 intra prediction modes may be used for the chroma component.

Alternatively, depending on the chroma format, a different number ofintra prediction modes may be used in performing intra prediction. Forexample, in the case of the 4:2:0 format, 67 intra prediction modes maybe used for the luma component to perform intra prediction and 35 intraprediction modes may be used for the chroma component. In the case ofthe 4:4:4 format, 67 intra prediction modes may be used for both theluma component and the chroma component to perform intra prediction.

Alternatively, depending on a size and/or shape of the block, adifferent number of intra prediction modes may be used to perform intraprediction. That is, depending on a size and/or shape of the PU or CU,35 intra prediction modes or 67 intra prediction modes may be used toperform intra prediction. For example, when the CU or PU has the sizeless than 64×64 or is asymmetrically partitioned, 35 intra predictionmodes may be used to perform intra prediction. When the size of the CUor PU is equal to or greater than 64×64, 67 intra prediction modes maybe used to perform intra prediction. 65 directional intra predictionmodes may be allowed for Intra 2N×2N, and only 35 directional intraprediction modes may be allowed for Intra_N×N.

A size of a block to which the extended intra prediction mode is appliedmay be set differently for each sequence, picture or slice. For example,it is set that the extended intra prediction mode is applied to a block(e.g., CU or PU) which has a size greater than 64×64 in the first slice.On the other hands, it is set that the extended intra prediction mode isapplied to a block which has a size greater than 32×32 in the secondslice. Information representing a size of a block to which the extendedintra prediction mode is applied may be signaled through on the basis ofa sequence, a picture, or a slice. For example, the informationindicating a size of the block to which the extended intra predictionmode is applied may be defined as ‘log2_extended_intra_mode_size_minus4’ obtained by taking a logarithm of theblock size and then subtracting the integer 4. For example, if a valueof log 2_extended_intra_mode_size_minus4 is 0, it may indicate that theextended intra prediction mode may be applied to a block having a sizeequal to or greater than 16×16. And if a value of log2_extended_intra_mode_size_minus4 is 1, it may indicate that theextended intra prediction mode may be applied to a block having a sizeequal to or greater than 32×32.

As described above, the number of intra prediction modes may bedetermined in consideration of at least one of a color component, achroma format, or a size or a shape of a block. In addition, the numberof intra prediction mode candidates (e.g., the number of MPMs) used fordetermining an intra prediction mode of a current block to beencoded/decoded may also be determined according to at least one of acolor component, a color format, or a size or a shape of a block. Inaddition, it is also possible to use a larger number of intra predictionmodes than shown in FIG. 8. For example, by further subdividing thedirectional prediction modes shown in FIG. 8, it is also possible to use129 directional prediction modes and 2 non-directional prediction modes.Whether to use a larger number of intra prediction modes than shown inFIG. 8 may be determined in consideration of at least one of the colorcomponent, the color format component, the size or the shape of theblock, as in the above-described example.

According to the directionality of an intra prediction mode, adirectional intra prediction mode may be classified into a plurality ofgroups. For example, the first group may indicate intra prediction modeshaving a smaller value than the intra prediction mode in the horizontaldirection as the directional intra prediction mode toward the bottomleft direction. The first group of intra prediction modes may bereferred to as a bottom horizontal intra prediction mode. For example,intra prediction modes smaller than 10 in 35 intra prediction modes orintra prediction modes having a mode value smaller than 16 in 67 intraprediction modes may be included in the first group.

The second group may indicate intra prediction modes having a mode valuesmaller than the intra prediction mode in the top left diagonaldirection from the intra prediction mode in the horizontal direction.The second group of intra prediction modes may be referred to as the tophorizontal intra prediction mode. For example, intra prediction modeshaving a mode value of 10 or more and less than 18 in 35 intraprediction modes or intra prediction modes having a mode value of 16 ormore and less than 34 in 67 intra prediction modes may be included inthe second group.

The third group may indicate intra prediction modes having a mode valuesmaller than the intra prediction mode in the vertical direction fromthe intra prediction mode in the top left diagonal direction. The thirdgroup of intra prediction modes may be referred to as the left verticalintra prediction mode. For example, intra prediction modes having a modevalue of 18 or more and less than 26 in 35 intra prediction modes orintra prediction modes having a mode value of 34 or more and less than50 in 67 intra prediction modes may be included in the third group.

The fourth group may indicate intra prediction modes having a mode valuesame as or greater than the intra prediction mode in the verticaldirection. For example, intra prediction modes having a mode value of 26or more in 35 intra prediction modes or intra prediction modes having amode value of 50 or more in 67 intra prediction modes may be included inthe fourth group.

It is also possible to classify the directional intra prediction modesin more or less than the four groups, and it is also possible to set therange of intra prediction modes included in each of the four groupsdifferently from the description.

Referring to the drawings to be described later, a method of determiningan intra prediction mode of a current block to be encoded/decoded and amethod of performing intra prediction using the determined intraprediction mode will be described with the drawings.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart briefly illustrating an intra prediction methodaccording to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 10, an intra prediction mode of a current block may bedetermined at step S1000.

Specifically, the intra prediction mode of the current block may bederived based on a candidate list and an index. Here, the candidate listcontains a plurality of candidates, and a plurality of candidates may bedetermined based on an intra prediction mode of the neighboring blockadjacent to the current block. The neighboring block may include atleast one of blocks positioned at the top, the bottom, the left, theright, or the corner of the current block. The index may specify one ofa plurality of candidates in the candidate list. The candidate specifiedby the index may be set to the intra prediction mode of the currentblock.

An intra prediction mode used for intra prediction in a neighboringblock may be set as a candidate. For example, candidates may be derivedbased on intra prediction modes of the left block, the top block, thebottom left corner neighboring block, the top right corner neighboringblock, and the top left corner neighboring block of the current block.If the neighboring block is encoded by inter prediction, the candidateof the current block may be derived using the intra prediction mode ofthe collocated block of the neighboring block.

Also, an intra prediction mode having directionality similar to that ofthe intra prediction mode of the neighboring block may be set as acandidate. Here, the intra prediction mode having similar directionalitymay be determined by adding or subtracting a predetermined constantvalue to or from the intra prediction mode of the neighboring block. Thepredetermined constant value may be an integer, such as one, two, ormore, and the predetermined constant value may be adaptively determinedaccording to the number of usable intra prediction modes. For example,when the number of usable intra prediction modes is 35, thepredetermined constant value may be set to 1, and when the number ofusable intra prediction modes is 67, the predetermined constant valuemay be set to 2. Furthermore, when the number of usable intra predictionmodes is 131, the predetermined constant value may be set to 4.

The candidate list may further include a default mode. The default modemay include at least one of a planar mode, a DC mode, the vertical mode,the horizontal mode, top right diagonal mode, or top left diagonal mode.The default mode may be adaptively added considering the maximum numberof candidates that can be included in the candidate list of the currentblock.

The maximum number of candidates that can be included in the candidatelist may be three, four, five, six, seven or more. The maximum number ofcandidates that can be included in the candidate list may be a fixedvalue preset in the device for encoding/decoding a video, or may bevariably determined based on a characteristic of the current block. Thecharacteristic may mean the location/size/shape of the block, thenumber/type of intra prediction modes that the block can use, a colortype, a color format, etc. Alternatively, information indicating themaximum number of candidates that can be included in the candidate listmay be signaled separately, and the maximum number of candidates thatcan be included in the candidate list may be variably determined usingthe information. The information indicating the maximum number ofcandidates may be signaled in at least one of a sequence level, apicture level, a slice level, or a block level.

Candidates included in the candidate list may be sorted in a predefinedorder. For example, candidates may be arranged in the candidate list inthe order of the left block, the top block, the bottom left block, thetop right block, and the top left block. Alternatively, the order ofcandidates may be variably determined according to a size or shape ofthe current block. For example, when the current block is a non-squareblock whose height is greater than the width, the intra prediction modeof the top block may be arranged with a higher priority than the intraprediction mode of the left block.

When the extended intra prediction modes and the 35 pre-defined intraprediction modes are selectively used, the intra prediction modes of theneighboring blocks may be transformed into indexes corresponding to theextended intra prediction modes, or into indexes corresponding to the 35intra prediction modes, whereby candidates can be derived. For transformto an index, a pre-defined table may be used, or a scaling operationbased on a predetermined value may be used. Here, the pre-defined tablemay define a mapping relation between different intra prediction modegroups (e.g., extended intra prediction modes and 35 intra predictionmodes).

For example, when the left neighboring block uses the 35 intraprediction modes and the intra prediction mode of the left neighboringblock is 10 (the horizontal mode), it may be transformed into an indexof 16 corresponding to the horizontal mode in the extended intraprediction modes.

Alternatively, when the top neighboring block uses the extended intraprediction modes and the intra prediction mode the top neighboring blockhas an index of 50 (the vertical mode), it may be transformed into anindex of 26 corresponding to the vertical mode in the 35 intraprediction modes.

Based on the above-described method of determining the intra predictionmode, the intra prediction mode may be derived independently for each ofa luma component and a chroma component, or the intra prediction mode ofthe chroma component may be derived depending on the intra predictionmode of the luma component.

Specifically, the intra prediction mode of the chroma component may bedetermined based on the intra prediction mode of the luma component asshown in the following Table 1.

TABLE 1 IntraPredModeY[xCb][yCb] Intra_chroma_pred_mode[xCb][yCb] 0 2610 1 X (0 <= X <= 34) 0 34 0 0 0 0 1 26 34 26 26 26 2 10 10 34 10 10 3 11 1 34 1 4 0 26 10 1 X

In Table 1, intra_chroma_pred_mode means information signaled to specifythe intra prediction mode of the chroma component, and IntraPredModeYindicates the intra prediction mode of the luma component.

Referring to FIG. 10, a reference sample for intra prediction of thecurrent block may be derived at step S1010.

Specifically, a reference sample for intra prediction may be derivedbased on a neighboring sample of the current block. The neighboringsample may be a reconstructed sample of the neighboring block, and thereconstructed sample may be a reconstructed sample before an in-loopfilter is applied or a reconstructed sample after the in-loop filter isapplied.

A neighboring sample reconstructed before the current block may be usedas the reference sample, and a neighboring sample filtered based on apredetermined intra filter may be used as the reference sample.Filtering of neighboring samples using an intra filter may also bereferred to as reference sample smoothing. The intra filter may includeat least one of the first intra filter applied to a plurality ofneighboring samples positioned on the same horizontal line or the secondintra filter applied to a plurality of neighboring samples positioned onthe same vertical line. Depending on the positions of the neighboringsamples, one of the first intra filter and the second intra filter maybe selectively applied, or both intra filters may be applied. At thistime, at least one filter coefficient of the first intra filter or thesecond intra filter may be (1, 2, 1), but is not limited thereto.

The filtering may be adaptively performed based on at least one of theintra prediction mode of the current block or a size of the transformblock for the current block. For example, when the intra prediction modeof the current block is the DC mode, the vertical mode, or thehorizontal mode, filtering may not be performed. When the size of thetransform block is N×M, filtering may not be performed. Here, N and Mmay be the same values or different values, or may be values of 4, 8,16, or more. For example, if the size of the transform block is 4×4,filtering may not be performed. Alternatively, filtering may beselectively performed based on the result of a comparison of apre-defined threshold and the difference between the intra predictionmode of the current block and the vertical mode (or the horizontalmode). For example, when the difference between the intra predictionmode of the current block and the vertical mode is greater than thethreshold, filtering may be performed. The threshold may be defined foreach size of the transform block as shown in Table 2.

TABLE 2 8 × 8 16 × 16 32 × 32 transform transform transform Threshold 71 0

The intra filter may be determined as one of a plurality of intra filtercandidates pre-defined in the device for encoding/decoding a video. Tothis end, a separate index specifying an intra filter of the currentblock among a plurality of intra filter candidates may be signaled.Alternatively, the intra filter may be determined based on at least oneof a size/shape of the current block, a size/shape of the transformblock, the information about the filter strength, or the variation ofsurrounding samples.

The intra prediction on a current coding block may be performed by usinga plurality of reference sample lines. For example, it may be performedby using two or more reference sample lines.

Whether to perform an intra prediction using a plurality of referencesample lines may be determined based on a size/shape of the currentblock, an intra prediction mode, or the like. For example, when an intraprediction mode of a current block is a non-directional intra predictionmode or an intra prediction mode in a specific direction, performing theintra prediction using a plurality of reference sample lines may belimited. Herein, the specific direction may include the verticaldirection, the horizontal direction, or the diagonal direction.

Referring to FIG. 10, intra prediction may be performed using the intraprediction mode of the current block and the reference sample at stepS1020.

That is, the prediction sample of the current block may be obtainedusing the intra prediction mode determined at step S1000 and thereference sample derived at step S1010. When intra prediction isperformed using a plurality of reference sample lines, a predictionsample may be obtained based on a weighted sum of reference samplesbelonging to different reference sample lines. For example, theprediction sample may be derived based on a weighted sum of the firstreference sample belonging to the first reference sample line and thesecond reference sample belonging to the second reference sample line.In this case, the weight applied to the first reference sample and thesecond reference sample may have the same value or may have differentvalues depending on the distance from the prediction target sample. Forexample, a higher weight may be given to a reference sample that isclose to the prediction target sample among the first reference sampleand the second reference sample.

However, in the case of intra prediction, a boundary sample of theneighboring block may be used, and thus quality of the predictionpicture may be decreased. Therefore, a correction process may beperformed on the prediction sample generated through the above-describedprediction process, and will be described in detail with reference toFIG. 11. However, the correction process is not limited to being appliedonly to the intra prediction sample, and may be applied to an interprediction sample or the reconstructed sample.

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a method of correcting a predictionsample of a current block based on differential information ofneighboring samples according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The prediction sample of the current block may be corrected based on thedifferential information of a plurality of neighboring samples for thecurrent block. The correction may be performed on all prediction samplesin the current block, or may be performed on prediction samples inpredetermined partial regions. The partial regions may be one row/columnor a plurality of rows/columns, and these may be preset regions forcorrection in the device for encoding/decoding a video. For example,correction may be performed on a one row/column located at a boundary ofthe current block or may be performed on a plurality of rows/columnsfrom the boundary of the current block. Alternatively, the partialregions may be variably determined based on at least one of a size/shapeof the current block or an intra prediction mode.

The neighboring samples may belong to the neighboring blocks positionedat the top, the left, and the top left corner of the current block. Thenumber of neighboring samples used for correction may be two, three,four, or more. The positions of the neighboring samples may be variablydetermined depending on the position of the prediction sample which isthe correction target in the current block. Alternatively, some of theneighboring samples may have fixed positions regardless of the positionof the prediction sample which is the correction target, and theremaining neighboring samples may have variable positions depending onthe position of the prediction sample which is the correction target.

The differential information of the neighboring samples may mean adifferential sample between the neighboring samples, or may mean a valueobtained by scaling the differential sample by a predetermined constantvalue (e.g., one, two, three, or the like). Here, the predeterminedconstant value may be determined considering the position of theprediction sample which is the correction target, the position of acolumn or a row including the prediction sample which is the correctiontarget, the position of the prediction sample within the column, therow, or the like.

For example, when the intra prediction mode of the current block is thevertical mode, differential samples between the top left neighboringsample p(−1, −1) and neighboring samples p (−1, y) adjacent to the leftboundary of the current block may be used to obtain the final predictionsample as shown in Equation 1.

P′(0,y)=P(0,y)+((p(−1,y)−p(−1,−1))>>1 for y=0 . . . N−1  [Equation 1]

For example, when the intra prediction mode of the current block is thehorizontal mode, differential samples between the top left neighboringsample p(—1, −1) and neighboring samples p(x, −1) adjacent to the topboundary of the current block may be used to obtain the final predictionsample as shown in Equation 1

P′(x,0)=p(x,0)+((p(x,−1)−p(−1,−1))>>1 for x=0 . . . N−1  [Equation 2]

For example, when the intra prediction mode of the current block is thevertical mode, differential samples between the top left neighboringsample p(−1, −1) and neighboring samples p (−1, y) adjacent to the leftboundary of the current block may be used to obtain the final predictionsample as shown in Equation 2. Here, the differential sample may beadded to the prediction sample, or the differential sample may be scaledby a predetermined constant value, and then added to the predictionsample. The predetermined constant value used in scaling may bedetermined differently depending on the column and/or row. For example,the prediction sample may be corrected as shown in Equation 3 andEquation 4.

P′(0,y)=P(0,y)+((p(−1,y)−p(−1,−1))>>1 for y=0 . . . N−1  [Equation 3]

P′(1,y)=P(1,y)+((p(−1,y)−p(−1,−1))>>2 for y=0 . . . N−1  [Equation 4]

For example, when the intra prediction mode of the current block is thehorizontal mode, differential samples between the top left neighboringsample p(−1, −1) and neighboring samples p(x, −1) adjacent to the leftboundary of the current block may be used to obtain the final predictionsample. This is as described above in the horizontal mode. For example,the prediction samples may be corrected as in Equations 5 and 6 below.

P′(x,0)=p(x,0)+((p(x,−1)−p(−1,−1))>>1 for x=0 . . . N−1  [Equation 5]

P′(x,1)=p(x,1)+((p(x,−1)−p(−1,−1))>>2 for x=0 . . . N−1  [Equation 6]

When an intra prediction mode of a current block is a directionalprediction mode, intra prediction of the current block may be performedbased on the directionality of the directional prediction mode. Forexample, Table 3 shows an intra direction parameter intraPredAng fromMode 2 to Mode 34, which is the directional intra prediction modeillustrated in FIG. 8.

TABLE 3 pred Mode Intra 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 intra —32 26 21 17 13 9 5 2 0 −2 −5 −9 −13 −17 −21 Pred Ang pred Mode Intra 1819 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 intra −32 −26 −21 −17 −13−9 −5 −2 0 2 5 9 13 17 21 26 Pred Ang

In Table 3, 33 directional intra prediction modes have been described byway of example, but more or fewer directional intra prediction modes maybe defined.

An intra direction parameter for a current block may be determined basedon a lookup table that defines a mapping relationship between adirectional intra prediction mode and an intra direction parameter.Alternatively, the intra direction parameter for the current block maybe determined based on the information signaled through the bitstream.

Intra prediction of the current block may be performed using at leastone of the left reference sample or the top reference sample, dependingon the directionality of the directional intra prediction mode. Here,the top reference sample may be a reference sample (eg, (−1, −1) to(2W−1, −1)) having a y-axis coordinate smaller than the predictiontarget sample (x, 0) included in the top row in the current block, andthe left reference sample may be a reference sample (eg, (−1, −1) to(−1, 2H−1)) having x-axis coordinates smaller than the prediction targetsample (0, y) included in the leftmost column in the current block.

Depending on a directionality of an intra prediction mode, referencesamples of the current block may be arranged in one dimension.Specifically, when both the top reference sample and the left referencesample should be used for intra prediction of the current block, it isassumed that they are arranged in a line along the vertical orhorizontal direction, and reference samples of each prediction targetsample may be selected.

For example, in the case where the intra direction parameter is negative(eg, the intra prediction mode corresponding to Mode 11 to Mode 25 inTable 3), the top reference samples and the left reference samples maybe rearranged along the horizontal or vertical direction to form aone-dimensional reference sample group P_ref_1D.

FIGS. 12 and 13 are a diagram illustrating a one-dimensional referencesample group in which reference samples are rearranged in a line.

Whether to rearrange the reference samples in the vertical direction orin the horizontal direction may be determined according to adirectionality of an intra prediction mode. For example, if the intraprediction mode index is between 11 and 18, as in the example shown inFIG. 12, the top reference samples of a current block can be rotatedcounterclockwise to generate a one-dimensional reference sample group inwhich the left reference samples and the top reference samples arearranged in the vertical direction.

On the other hand, if the intra prediction mode index is between 19 and25, as in the example shown in FIG. 13, the left reference samples ofthe current block may be rotated clockwise to generate a one-dimensionalreference sample group in which the left reference samples and the topreference samples are arranged in the horizontal direction.

If the intra direction parameter of the current block is not negative,intra prediction for the current block may be performed using only theleft reference samples or the top reference samples. Accordingly, forthe intra prediction modes in which the intra direction parameter is notnegative, the one-dimensional reference sample group may be generatedusing only the left reference sample or the top reference samples.

Based on the intra direction parameter, a reference sample determinationindex iIdx for specifying at least one reference sample used to predictthe prediction target sample may be derived. In addition, a weightrelated parameter ifact used to determine a weight applied to eachreference sample based on the intra direction parameter may be derived.For example, Equations 7 and 8 illustrate examples of deriving referencesample determination index and weight related parameter

iIdx=(y+1)*(P _(ang)/32)

ifact=[(y+1)*P _(ang)]31  [Equation 7]

As shown in Equation 7, iIdx and ifact are variably determined accordingto the slope of the directional intra prediction mode. In this case, thereference sample specified by iIdx may correspond to an integer pel.

Based on a reference sample determination index, at least one referencesample may be specified for each prediction sample. For example, theposition of the reference sample in the one-dimensional reference samplegroup for predicting the prediction target sample in the current blockmay be specified based on the reference sample determination index.Based on the reference sample at the specified position, a predictionimage (ie, a prediction sample) for the prediction target sample may begenerated.

Considering an intra prediction mode of a current block, if a predictiontarget sample can be predicted with only one reference sample, theprediction image of the prediction target sample may be generated basedon the reference sample specified by the intra prediction mode of thecurrent block.

For example, when an imaginary angular line according to the angle orthe slope of the intra prediction mode crosses an integer pel (i.e., areference sample at an integer position) the one-dimensional referencesample group, by copying the reference sample at the integer pelposition or considering the position between the reference sample at theinteger pel position and the prediction target sample, the predictionimage of the prediction target sample may be generated. For example, thefollowing Equation 8 illustrates an example of generating the predictionimage P(x, y) for the prediction target sample by copying the referencesample P_ref_1D(x+iIdx+1) in the one-dimensional reference sample groupspecified by the intra prediction mode of the current block.

P(x,y)=P_ref_1D(x+iIdx+1)  [Equation 8]

In consideration of an intra prediction mode of a current block, when itis determined that a prediction target sample is not predicted with onlyone reference sample, a plurality of reference samples may be used toperform prediction on the prediction target sample. Specifically,according to the intra prediction mode of the current block, theprediction target sample may be predicted by performing linearinterpolation or tap filter based interpolation on the reference sampleat a predetermined position and neighboring reference samplesneighboring the reference sample at a predetermined position. The numberof taps of the interpolation filter may be two or more natural numbers.Specifically, the number of taps of the tap filter may be an integer of2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or more, depending on the number of reference samples tobe interpolated.

For example, an imaginary angular line according to the angle of theintra prediction mode or the slope of the intra prediction mode does notcross the integer pel (ie, the reference sample at the integer position)in the one-dimensional reference sample group, a prediction image of aprediction target sample may be generated by interpolating a referencesample placed on a corresponding angle line and a reference sampleadjacent to the left/right or up/down of the reference sample. Forexample, the following Equation 9 illustrates an example of generating aprediction sample P(x, y) for a prediction target sample byinterpolating two or more reference samples.

P(x,y)=(32−i _(fact))/32*P_ref_1D(x+iIdx+1)+i_(fact)/32*P_ref_1D(x+iIdx+2)  [Equation 9]

A coefficient of an interpolation filter may be determined based on aweight related parameter ifact. As an example, the coefficient of theinterpolation filter may be determined based on the distance between thefractional pel and the integer pel (ie, the integer position of eachreference sample) located on an angular line.

The following Equation 10 illustrates a case where a tap number of a tapfilter is 4.

P(x,y)=f(0)*P_ref_1D(x+iIdx−1)+f(1)*P_ref_1D(x+iIdx)+f(2)*P_ref_1D(x+iIdx+1)+f(3)*P_ref_1D(x+iIdx+2)  [Equation10]

When using a multi-tap filter, a sample at a position that does notcorrespond to the left reference sample or the top reference sample maybe replaced with the nearest reference sample at that position. As anexample, in Equation 9, when a sample at the position P_ref_1D(x+iIdx−1) does not correspond to the top reference sample, the samplemay be replaced with a reference sample at the position Pref_1D(x+idx).Alternatively, when a sample at the Pref_1D(x+iIdx+2) position does notcorrespond to the top reference sample, the sample may be replaced witha reference sample at the Pref_1D (x+iIdx+1) position.

The multi-tap filter can be applied to a plurality of reference samplesarranged in a line along the horizontal or vertical direction.Alternatively, the multi-tap filter may be applied to a predeterminedpolygonal shape such as a rectangle. A shape to which the multi-tapfilter is applied may be variably determined according to the size,shape, or intra prediction mode of the current block.

As shown in Equations 8 to 10, generating a prediction sample byinterpolating a reference sample using the directionality of intraprediction may be referred to as an intra prediction sampleinterpolation technique.

In using the intra prediction sample interpolation technique, a largetap number of tap filters does not necessarily guarantee an improvementin prediction accuracy. For example, when a size of the current block isan asymmetric coding unit that one of the height or width issignificantly larger than the other, such as 2×16, or a block of smallsize, such as 4×4, using a tap filter of 4 taps or more may result inexcessive smoothing of the prediction image. Accordingly, a type of tapfilter may be adaptively determined according to a size, shape, or intraprediction mode of the current block. Here, a type of tap filter may beclassified by at least one of a number of taps, filter coefficients,filter strength (strong/weak), or filtering direction. The number offilter taps or the filter coefficient may be variably determinedaccording to the filter strength. In addition, depending on the type ofthe tap filter, an application direction of the tap filter, such ashorizontal interpolation, vertical interpolation, or horizontal andvertical interpolation, may be determined. The application direction ofthe tap filter may be variably set on the basis of lines (rows orcolumns) or samples in the current block.

Specifically, the type of tap filter to be used may be determined basedon the width or height of a current block. As an example, when at leastone of the width or height of the current block is smaller than apredefined value, an intra prediction sample interpolation technique maybe performed by using a 2-tap filter instead of a 4-tap filter. On theother hand, when both the width and height of the current block isgreater than or equal to the predetermined value, the intra predictionsample interpolation technique may be performed using the 4-tap filter.Here, the predefined value may represent a value such as 4, 8, or 16.

Alternatively, the type of tap filter to be used may be determinedaccording to whether the width and height of the current block are thesame. For example, when the width and height of the current block aredifferent values, the intra prediction sample interpolation techniquemay be performed using the 2-tap filter instead of the 4-tap filter. Onthe other hand, when the width and height of the current block have thesame value, the intra prediction sample interpolation technique may beperformed using the 4-tap filter.

Alternatively, the type of tap filter to be used may be determinedaccording to the ratio of the width and the height of the current block.For example, when the ratio of the width (w) to the height (h) of thecurrent block (ie, w/h or h/w) is less than a predefined threshold, theintra prediction sample interpolation technique may be performed usingthe 2-tap filter instead of the 4-tap filter On the other hand, when theratio of the width and height of the current block is greater than orequal to the predefined threshold value, the intra prediction sampleinterpolation technique may be performed using the 4-tap filter.

Alternatively, the type of tap filter may be determined according to anintra prediction mode, a shape, or a size of the current block. Forexample, when the current block is a 2×16 type coding unit and the intraprediction mode of the current block is an intra prediction modebelonging to the horizontal range, the intra prediction sampleinterpolation technique may be performed using a tap filter having a tapnumber n. On the other hand, when the current block is a 2×16 typecoding unit and the intra prediction mode of the current block is anintra prediction mode belonging to the vertical direction range, theintra prediction sample interpolation technique may be performed using atap filter having a tap number m.

On the other hand, when the current block is a 16×2 type coding unit andthe intra prediction mode of the current block is the intra predictionmode belonging to the horizontal direction range, the intra predictionsample interpolation technique may be performed using a tap filterhaving a tap number n. On the other hand, when the current block is a16×2 type coding unit and the intra prediction mode of the current blockis the intra prediction mode belonging to the vertical direction range,the intra prediction sample interpolation technique may be performedusing a tap filter having a tap number m.

Here, the horizontal range may indicate a predetermined range includingthe intra prediction mode in the horizontal direction, and the verticalrange may indicate a predetermined range including the intra predictionmode in the vertical direction. For example, based on 35 intraprediction modes, the horizontal direction range may indicate an intraprediction mode between modes 11 and 18, and the vertical directionrange may indicate an intra prediction mode between modes 19 and 27.

In addition, n and m are constants greater than 0, and n and m may havedifferent values. Alternatively, n and m may be set to have the samevalue, but at least one of filter coefficients or filter intensities ofthe n tap filter and the m tap filter may be set differently.

One block may be partitioned into a plurality of sub-blocks, and intraprediction may be performed in a unit of a sub-block. In this case,sub-blocks belonging to one block may have the same intra predictionmode. However, the range of reference samples to which each sub-blockrefers may be different. That is, in the example shown in FIG. 10, thereference sample deriving step S1010 and the intra prediction performingstep S1020 may be performed in a unit of a sub-block.

A block including a plurality of sub-blocks may be a coding block, aprediction block, or a transform block. Alternatively, a block includinga plurality of sub-blocks may be a predetermined region sharing the sameintra prediction mode and the same MPM candidate list.

A size and shape of a block (or region) including a plurality ofsub-blocks may have an N×M shape predefined in an encoder and a decoder.Here, N and M, as natural numbers, may be the same or may be differentfrom each other.

Alternatively, information for specifying a size and shape of a block(or region) including a plurality of sub-blocks may be signaled throughthe bitstream. The size and shape of a block (or region) including aplurality of sub-blocks may be variably determined based on the signaledinformation.

For convenience of description, an intra prediction target block (orregion) including a plurality of sub-blocks will be referred to as acurrent block. Hereinafter, a method of performing intra prediction in aunit of a sub-block will be described in detail.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart illustrating a method of performing intraprediction on the basis of a sub-block.

Referring to FIG. 14, first, a partition type of a current block may bedetermined S1410.

A partition type of the current block may be determined based on atleast one of a size, shape, or intra prediction mode of the currentblock. For example, when the intra prediction mode of the current blockis the vertical direction or similar to the vertical direction, apartition type of the current block may have a form in which sub-blocksare arranged up and down. On the other hand, when the intra predictionmode of the current block is the horizontal direction or similar to thehorizontal direction, a partition type of the current block may have aform in which sub-blocks are arranged left and right. Here, the intraprediction mode similar to the specific direction may be an intraprediction mode whose angle is within a predetermined angle from thespecific direction or whose mode value difference from the intraprediction mode in the specific direction is within a predeterminedvalue.

FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating a partition type of a sub-blockaccording to an intra prediction mode.

As in the example shown in FIG. 15, when a current block has an intraprediction mode in the top right direction, the current block may bepartitioned into sub-blocks having a width longer than the height (N×Mshape, where N>M). On the other hand, when the current block has anintra prediction mode in the top left direction, the current block maybe partitioned into sub-blocks having a height longer than the width(N×M shape, where N<M).

As another example, depending on whether the intra prediction mode ofthe current block has a specific direction, a partition type of thecoding block may be determined. For example, when the current block hasan intra prediction mode in the top right direction, the partition typeof the current block may be determined as sub-blocks arranged up anddown. On the other hand, when the current block has an intra predictionmode other than that, the partition type of the current block may bedetermined as sub-blocks arranged to the left and right.

Alternatively, information indicating the partition type of the currentblock may be signaled through the bitstream. In this case, theinformation indicating the partition type may include at least one of anindex for specifying the partition type, information indicating a sizeand shape of the sub-block, or information indicating the partitioningdirection of the current block.

The sub-block may be a square or a non-square. Alternatively, it is alsopossible to generate the sub-block by partitioning the current block onthe basis of a row or column or by partitioning the current block on thebasis of a plurality of rows or columns.

When a plurality of sub-blocks is generated by partitioning the currentblock, intra prediction may be performed on the basis of a sub-blockS1420. In this case, the intra prediction may be sequentially performedaccording to a position of the sub-block.

FIGS. 16 and 17 are a diagram illustrating an example of performingintra prediction on the basis of a sub-block.

In order to perform intra prediction on the basis of a sub-block, oneblock may be partitioned into a plurality of sub-blocks. Even though itis illustrated in the example shown in FIGS. 16 and 17 that the codingblock is partitioned into two sub-blocks, it is also possible topartition the coding block into a larger number of sub-blocks.

A plurality of sub-blocks may have the same intra prediction mode. Forexample, an intra prediction mode of the first sub-block and an intraprediction mode of the second sub-block may both be an intra predictionmode in the top right direction.

Intra prediction of the first sub-block adjacent to the top boundary orthe left boundary of a current block among a plurality of sub-blocks maybe performed using a reference sample adjacent to the coding block. Asan example, intra prediction on the first sub-block may be performedusing at least one of the top reference sample or the left referencesample adjacent to the coding block according to the intra predictionmode.

After performing intra prediction of the first sub-block, intraprediction of the second sub-block adjacent to the first sub-block maybe performed by setting a sample included in the first sub-block as areference sample. For example, a sample located at the bottom boundaryof the first sub-block adjacent to the second sub-block may be set as areference sample for intra prediction of the second sub-block. In thiscase, a sample of the first sub-block may be a prediction sample, aresidual sample, or a reconstructed sample reconstructed by using theprediction sample and the residual sample for the first sub-block.

As an example, in the example illustrated in FIG. 17, neighboringsamples adjacent to the top of the second sub-block are illustrated asbeing set as reference samples (denoted as ‘the second reference sample’in FIG. 17) for the second sub-block.

Alternatively, the intra prediction of the second sub-block may includethe first intra prediction using a reference sample adjacent to thecurrent block and the second intra prediction using a reference samplein the first sub-block. For example, a prediction sample in the secondsub-block may be derived based on a weighted sum between the firstprediction sample generated based on the first intra prediction and thesecond prediction sample generated based on the second intra prediction.In this case, a weight applied to the first prediction sample and thesecond prediction sample may have the same value or may be setdifferently according to the distance from a prediction target sample.

A residual sample of a current block on which intra prediction isperformed may be obtained through inverse quantization and inversetransform. In this case, when a plurality of transforms is applied tothe current block, a unit to which the transform is applied may bevariably determined according to a transform order. For example, thefirst transform may be performed on the basis of the coding block, whilethe second transform may be performed on the basis of a sub-block. Inthis case, a reference sample of the second sub-block may be configuredby using a sample (i.e., a residual sample) to which the secondtransform is applied in the first sub-block. For example, a referencesample of the second sub-block may be derived as the sum of a predictionsample and the residual sample in the first sub-block.

Depending on an intra prediction mode, a case where a sample of alocation that is not predicted or reconstructed should be used as areference sample may occur. For example, in the example shown in FIG.17, a sample adjacent to the top right corner of the second sub-blockand samples located to the right from the sample are likely to besamples that have not yet been predicted or reconstructed. In this case,the sample that is not predicted or reconstructed may be replaced with asample located at the right boundary of the first sub-block or aninterpolated value of a predetermined number of samples included in thefirst sub-block.

When the first sub prediction block is generated through intraprediction on the first sub-block and the second sub prediction block isgenerated through intra prediction on the second sub-block, a predictionblock of a current block may be generated by merging the first subprediction block and the second sub prediction block.

Whether to perform intra prediction of a current block on the basis of asub-block may be adaptively determined according to a size, shape, orintra prediction mode of the current block. For example, it may bedetermined whether intra prediction of the current block is performed onthe basis of a sub-block according to whether the intra prediction modeof the current block is a directional mode in a specific direction.

Alternatively, information indicating whether to perform intraprediction of the current block on the basis of a sub-block may beencoded and signaled through a bitstream. The information may besignaled on the basis of a block or signaled on the basis of a slice orpicture.

In the above-described embodiment, it is assumed that one intraprediction mode is applied to a current block. However, intra predictionmay be performed on the current block by using a plurality of intraprediction modes. Here, a plurality of intra prediction modes may berepresented by a combination of a non-directional intra prediction modeand at least one directional intra prediction mode, a combination of aplurality of directional intra prediction modes, or a combination of aplurality of non-directional intra prediction modes.

For example, different intra prediction modes or different directionalintra prediction modes may be applied to each prediction target samplein a current block. In order to determine an intra prediction mode ofeach prediction target sample, information indicating an intraprediction mode difference value with a previous prediction targetsample may be signaled through the bitstream.

For example, a current block may be partitioned into a plurality ofregions, and different intra prediction modes may be applied to thepartitioned regions. Here, a plurality of regions may represent apredetermined number of sample units and a predetermined size/shape of ablock unit. For example, the current block may be partitioned into aplurality of sub-blocks having a predetermined shape/size.Alternatively, a plurality of regions may be generated by partitioningthe current block into predetermined row/column units. For example, aregion including a row/column on the boundary of both sides of thecurrent block is set as the first region, and other area is set as thesecond area, so that different intra prediction modes may be applied tothe first region and the second region. A number of regions may bevariably determined according to a size of a current prediction block, anumber of samples, or the like, or may have a fixed number predefined inthe encoder and the decoder regardless of these elements.

Using a plurality of reference samples, intra prediction of a currentblock may be performed. Specifically, a prediction sample may begenerated based on a weighted sum operation between a plurality ofreference samples, and this may be referred to as intra weightedprediction.

Intra weighted prediction may be performed using a plurality ofreference samples that does not neighboring to each other or a pluralityof reference sample groups that does not neighboring to each other. Forexample, intra weighted prediction may be performed based on a weightedsum of a top reference sample and a left reference sample, or may beperformed based on a weighted sum of spatially contiguous n topreference samples and spatially contiguous m left reference samples. nand m may have the same value or may have different values.

Positions of the top reference sample and the left reference sample usedfor intra weighted prediction may be specified by the directionality ofan intra prediction mode. For example, one of the top reference sampleand the left reference sample may be selected by applying an intraprediction mode of a current block in the forward direction, while theother may be selected by applying an intra prediction mode of a currentblock in the reverse direction. For example, when an intra predictionmode of a current block is in the top right diagonal direction, intraweighted prediction may be performed using the top reference samplelocated atthe top right diagonal direction of a prediction target sampleand the left reference sample located at the bottom left diagonaldirection of a prediction target sample

Depending on a position of a prediction target sample, a referencesample used for intra weighted prediction may be adaptively selected.For example, at least one of the top reference sample having the samex-axis coordinate as a prediction target sample or the left referencesample having the same y-axis coordinate as a prediction target samplemay be used for intra weighted prediction.

Intra weighted prediction may be performed using a reference sample infixed position. For example, at least one of a reference sample adjacentto the left corner of a current block, a reference sample adjacent tothe top right corner of a current block, or a reference sample adjacentto the bottom left corner of a current block may be used for intraweighted prediction.

The weight applied to the top reference sample and the left referencesample may be determined based on a position of a prediction targetsample or a distance between a prediction target sample and eachreference sample. Equation 11 is an example of intra weightedprediction, and illustrates a method of obtaining a prediction sample p(x, y) for a prediction target sample at the position (x, y).

$\begin{matrix}\left. {{P\left( {x,y} \right)} = {\left\lbrack {{\left( {x + 1} \right) \times {P\_ ref}\left( {{x + y + 2},{- 1}} \right)} + {\left( {y + 1} \right) \times {P\_ ref}\left( {{- 1},{x + y + 2}} \right)} + \frac{x + y + 2}{2}} \right\rbrack\text{/}\left( {x + y + 1} \right)}} \right) & \left\lbrack {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 11} \right\rbrack\end{matrix}$

In Equation 11, P_ref (x+y+2, −1) represents the top reference sample ofa current block, and P_ref (−1, x+y+2) represents the left referencesample of a current block. In Equation 11, positions of the topreference sample and the left reference sample may be determinedaccording to an intra prediction mode of a current block or thedirection of the intra prediction mode. As shown in Equation 11, theweights applied to the top reference sample and the left referencesample may be determined based on a position of a prediction targetsample or a distance to a prediction target sample.

Equation 12, as an another example of intra weighted prediction, shows amethod of obtaining a prediction sample p (x, y) for a prediction targetsample at the position (x, y).

P(x,y)=HorW×P_ref(x+y+2,−1)+VerW×P_ref(−1,x+y+2)+(x+y+1)/2>>S[x+y])  [Equation12]

In Equation 12, positions of the top reference sample and the leftreference sample may be determined according to an intra prediction modeof a current block or the direction of the intra prediction mode.Equation 11 uses a division operator having a high implementationcomplexity, whereas Equation 12 uses a bit shift operation. In Equation12, the variable S[n] may be defined as follows.

${S\lbrack n\rbrack} = \begin{Bmatrix}{0,0,{512},{341},{256},{205},{171},{146},{128},{114},{103},{93},{85},{79},{73},68,} \\{64,60,57,54,51,49,47,45,43,41,39,38,37,35,34,33,} \\{32,31,30,29,28,28,27,26,26,25,24,24,23,23,22,22,} \\{21,21,20,20,20,19,19,19,18,18,18,17,17,17,16,16,} \\{16,16,16,15,15,15,15,14,14,14,14,14,14,13,13,13,} \\{13,13,13,12,12,12,12,12,12,11,11,11,11,11,11,11,} \\{11,11,10,10,10,10,10,10,10,10,10,10,10,9,{9\ 9}} \\{9,9,9,9,9,9,9,9,9,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,} \\{{8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,7,7,7,7,7,7,7,}\ } \\{7,7,7,7,7,7,7,7,7,7,7,7,7,7,6,6,} \\{6,6,6,6,6,6,6,6,6,6,6,6,6,6,6,6,} \\{6,6,6,6,6,6,6,6,6,6,5,5,5,5,5,5,} \\{5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,} \\{5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,} \\{5,5,5,5,5,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,} \\{4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4}\end{Bmatrix}$

In addition, weights HorW and VerW applied to the top reference sampleand the left reference sample may be determined according to Equation 13below.

HorW=(1<<S[x+y])−VerW if x<y)

HorW=(y+1)*S[x+y+2] if x>=y

VerW=(x+1)*S[x+y+2] if x<y

VerW=(1<<S[x+y])−HorW if x>=y  [Equation 13]

As shown in Equation 13, a weight applied to the top reference sampleand the left reference sample may be determined based on a position of aprediction target sample or a distance between a prediction targetsample and each reference sample.

As another example, instead of differently setting the weights appliedto the top reference sample and the left reference sample for eachprediction target sample, the weights applied to the top referencesample and the left reference sample may be determined in a unit of apredetermined block. That is, intra weighted prediction for predictionsamples included in the predetermined block unit may be performed byapplying the same weight to the top reference sample and the same weightto left reference sample.

FIG. 18 is a diagram illustrating an example in which the same weight isapplied on the basis of a predetermined block.

In an example shown in FIG. 18, the same weight is applied on the basisof a 4×4 sub-block. When the same weight is applied on the basis of asub-block, the prediction sample at the position (x, y) may be derivedas in Equation 14 below.

P(x,y)=(x′+1)×P_ref(x+y+2,−1)+(y′+1)×P_ref(−1,x+y+2)+(x+y+2)/2>>(x′++1)  [Equation14]

In Equation 14, the variables X and y may be derived as shown inEquation 15 according to the size of the sub-block to which the sameweight is applied.

x′=floor(y/sub_width), y′=floor(y/sub_height)  [Equation 15]

In Equation 15, the floor (x) function is a function representing thelargest integer less than or equal to x. Sub_width and sub_heightrepresent the width and height of a sub-block to which the same weightis applied, respectively.

A predetermined block unit may be a block unit in which intra predictionis performed, such as a coding block, a prediction block, or a transformblock, or may be a sub block of a smaller size than the block unit inwhich intra prediction is performed. The size and shape of a sub-blockmay be predefined in an encoder and a decoder, or information indicatingthe size and shape of a sub-block may be signaled through a bitstream.

Whether to perform intra weighted prediction may be variably determinedaccording to the size, shape, or intra prediction mode of a currentblock. As an example, whether to perform intra weighted prediction maybe determined according to whether an intra prediction mode of a currentblock is a planner mode, a DC mode, a horizontal mode, a vertical mode,or a diagonal direction mode. The diagonal direction mode may indicatean intra prediction mode having a specific direction (e.g., an intraprediction mode corresponding to 2, 34, or 66), or may indicate any oneintra prediction modes having similar directions in a specific range.Specifically, intra weighted prediction may not be used when an intraprediction mode of a current block is the horizontal mode or thevertical mode. Alternatively, it may be determined whether to performintra weighted prediction according to whether an intra prediction modebelongs to a predefined intra prediction mode group.

Alternatively, intra weighted prediction may replace any of thedirectional intra prediction modes. For example, when an intraprediction mode in the top right diagonal direction is selected, intraweighted prediction may be set to be used. Taking the 67 intraprediction modes illustrated in FIG. 9 as an example, the top rightdiagonal prediction mode having the intra prediction mode 66 may be usedas the intra weighted prediction mode.

Alternatively, information indicating whether to perform intra weightedprediction may be signaled through a bitstream. The information may besignaled only when an intra prediction mode of a current block has apredefined direction. As an example, when an intra prediction mode inthe top right diagonal direction is selected, it may be determinedwhether to perform intra weighted prediction based on informationsignaled through a bitstream. The information may be a 1-bit flag, butis not limited thereto. Taking the 67 intra prediction modes illustratedin FIG. 9 as an example, when an intra prediction mode of a currentblock is 66, a flag indicating whether to perform intra weightedprediction may be decoded.

Intra weighted prediction may be performed by performing intraprediction to obtain a prediction sample, and then performing a weightedsum operation between the obtained prediction sample and the additionalreference sample. That is, intra weighted prediction may be performedthrough the process of additionally applying the reference sample to anintra prediction and an intra prediction result.

FIG. 19 is a diagram illustrating an example in which intra weightedprediction is performed in stages.

As in the example illustrated in FIG. 19, first, intra prediction of acurrent block may be performed of the current block. For example, whenan intra prediction mode of a current block is the top right diagonaldirection, a prediction sample in a current block may be generated basedon a reference sample located in the top right direction of a predictiontarget sample.

When a prediction sample is obtained through intra prediction, the finalprediction sample may be obtained through a weighted sum operation of aprediction sample and a reference sample adjacent to a current block. Asan example, as shown in the example shown in FIG. 19, through a weightedsum operation between the prediction sample p (x, y) obtained throughintra prediction and the top reference sample p_ref (x+y+2, −1) adjacentto the top of a current block, the final prediction sample may beobtained.

In the example shown in FIG. 19, when an intra prediction mode of acurrent block is in the top right diagonal direction, intra weightedprediction is performed using the top reference sample. That is, whenintra prediction is performed using the top reference sample accordingto an intra prediction mode of a current block, intra weightedprediction may be performed using at least one of the top referencesamples, as in the example illustrated in FIG. 19. Although not shown,when intra prediction is performed using the left reference sampleaccording to an intra prediction mode of a current block, intra weightedprediction may be performed using at least one of the left referencesamples.

Conversely, when intra prediction is performed using the top referencesample according to an intra prediction mode of a current block, intraweighted prediction may be performed using at least one of the leftreference samples. In addition, when intra prediction is performed usingthe left reference sample according to an intra prediction mode of acurrent block, it is also possible to perform intra weighted predictionusing at least one of the top reference samples.

Alternatively, intra weighted prediction may be performed to apply boththe top reference sample and the left reference sample to a predictionsample obtained according to an intra prediction mode of a currentblock.

It is also possible to perform the intra weighted prediction by usingthe left reference sample when the intra prediction mode of the currentblock has a top-right diagonal direction.

As in the above-described example, intra weighted prediction may beselectively performed according to the size, shape, or intra predictionmode of the current block.

For example, intra weighted prediction may be selectively performedaccording to whether an intra prediction mode of a current block is aplanner mode, a vertical direction, a horizontal direction, or adiagonal direction. For example, intra weighted prediction is notperformed when the intra prediction mode of the current block has thetop horizontal direction or the left vertical direction, whereas intraweighted prediction may be performed when an intra prediction mode of acurrent block has the bottom horizontal direction or the right verticaldirection. When an intra prediction mode of a current block has thebottom horizontal direction, intra weighted prediction is performed byEquation 16 below, while when an intra prediction mode of a currentblock has the right vertical direction, intra weighted prediction may beperformed by Equation 17

$\begin{matrix}{{{P\left( {x,y} \right)} = {{\left( {x^{\prime} + 1} \right) \times P_{re{f{({{x + y + 2},{- 1}})}}}} + {\left( {y^{\prime} + 1} \right) \times {P\left( {x,y} \right)}} + \frac{x + y + 2}{2}}}\operatorname{>>}\left( {x^{\prime} + y^{\prime} + 1} \right)} & \left\lbrack {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 16} \right\rbrack \\{{{P\left( {x,y} \right)} = {{\left( {x^{\prime} + 1} \right) \times {P\left( {x,y} \right)}} + {\left( {y^{\prime} + 1} \right) \times P_{re{f{({{- 1},{x + y + 2}})}}}} + \frac{x + y + 2}{2}}}\operatorname{>>}\left( {x^{\prime} + y^{\prime} + 1} \right)} & \left\lbrack {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 17} \right\rbrack\end{matrix}$

Although the above-described embodiments are described based on a seriesof steps or flowcharts, this does not limit the time-series order of theinvention and may be performed simultaneously or in a different order asnecessary. In addition, in the above-described embodiment, eachcomponent (e.g., a unit, a module, or the like.) constituting the blockdiagram may be implemented as a hardware device or software, and aplurality of components may be combined to be implemented as onehardware device or software. The above-described embodiments may beimplemented in the form of program instructions that may be executed byvarious computer components, and may be recorded in a computer-readablerecording medium. The computer-readable recording medium may include aprogram instruction, a data file, a data structure, etc. alone or incombination. Examples of computer-readable recording media includemagnetic media such as a hard disk, a floppy disk and a magnetic tape,an optical recording media such as a CD-ROM, a DVD, and amagneto-optical media such as a floptical disk, and hardware devicesspecifically configured to store and execute a program instruction, suchas a ROM, a RAM, a flash memory, and the like. The hardware device maybe configured to operate as one or more software modules to perform theprocess according to the invention, and vice versa.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

The present invention can be applied to an electronic device capable ofencoding/decoding an image.

1-15. (canceled)
 16. A method of decoding an image signal, comprising:receiving a bitstream including the image signal; dividing, based on aquad division, a first coding block in the image signal into four secondcoding blocks, the first coding block having a first division depth,each of the four second coding blocks having a second division depthgreater than the first division depth; and dividing, based on a tripledivision, a second coding block into three third coding blocks, each ofthe three third coding blocks having a third division depth greater thanthe second division depth, wherein one of the three third coding blockshas a size greater than a size of the other two of the three thirdcoding blocks, wherein the other two of the three third coding blockshave the same size, wherein a size of the one of the three third codingblocks is twice a size of the other two of the three third codingblocks, and wherein the one of the three third coding blocks is locatedbetween the other two of the three third coding blocks.
 17. The methodof claim 16, wherein at least one of the three third coding blocks isfurther divided, based on first information and second informationsignaled from the bitstream, into two fourth coding blocks, and whereinthe first information indicates whether to divide based on a binarydivision and the second information indicates whether a divisiondirection is a vertical direction or a horizontal direction.
 18. Themethod of claim 17, wherein, with respect to the binary division for theat least one of the three third coding blocks, it is restricted so asnot to be divided in a same division direction as a division directionof the triple division for the second coding block.
 19. The method ofclaim 18, wherein the restriction is applied only to the one of thethree third coding blocks located between the other two of the threethird coding blocks.
 20. The method of claim 19, wherein signaling ofthe second information for the one of the three third coding block fromthe bitstream is omitted.
 21. The method of claim 17, wherein, inresponse to a case where a fourth coding block is coded in an intramode, the fourth coding block is further divided, based on thirdinformation signaled from the bitstream, into a plurality of sub-blocks,and wherein the third information indicates whether a sub-block-basedintra prediction is performed for the fourth coding block.
 22. Themethod of claim 21, wherein a number of the sub-blocks resulting fromdividing the fourth coding block is two or four.
 23. The method of claim22, wherein the fourth coding block is divided by using only one of avertical division based on one or more vertical lines or a horizontaldivision based on one or more horizontal lines.
 24. A method of encodingan image signal, comprising: dividing, based on a quad division, a firstcoding block in the image signal into four second coding blocks, thefirst coding block having a first division depth, each of the foursecond coding blocks having a second division depth greater than thefirst division depth; and dividing, based on a triple division, a secondcoding block into three third coding blocks, each of the three thirdcoding blocks having a third division depth greater than the seconddivision depth, wherein one of the three third coding blocks has a sizegreater than a size of the other two of the three third coding blocks,wherein the other two of the three third coding blocks have the samesize, wherein a size of the one of the three third coding blocks istwice a size of the other two of the three third coding blocks, andwherein the one of the three third coding blocks is located between theother two of the three third coding blocks.
 25. A non-transitorycomputer-readable medium for storing a compressed image signal,comprising: a data stream including the compressed image signal, whereina first coding block in the compressed image signal is divided, based ona quad division, into four second coding blocks, the first coding blockhas a first division depth, and each of the four second coding blockshas a second division depth greater than the first division depth,wherein a second coding block is divided, based on a triple division,into three third coding blocks, and each of the three third codingblocks has a third division depth greater than the second divisiondepth, wherein one of the three third coding blocks has a size greaterthan a size of the other two of the three third coding blocks, whereinthe other two of the three third coding blocks have the same size,wherein a size of the one of the three third coding blocks is twice asize of the other two of the three third coding blocks, and wherein theone of the three third coding blocks is located between the other two ofthe three third coding blocks.